This invention relates to machines for the creation of stuffed products, especially stuffed meat products, and more particularly, to high speed machinery in which stuffed products are formed of fill and tubing, where the fill is pumped into the tubing, and the filled tubing is intermittently clipped and severed to form products known as chubs.
In the creation of stuffed products, especially stuffed metal products, high speed machinery is employed in which stuffed products are formed of fill and tubing. The fill is pumped or otherwise placed into the tubing, and the filled tubing is intermittently clipped and severed to form products known as chubs. In machines as described, voider or gathering plates are included. The plates are paired, and move in pairs both transversely to the direction of product flow, and longitudinally along the direction of product flow.
The plates include longitudinally movable gathering plates, and stationary gathering plates. As conventional, the plates are operated in co-ordination with a clipper apparatus. The pairs of plates operate through a cycle as follows: The plates are open transversely, to allow product to pass through. The movable plates are adjacent the stationary plates.
Voiding of fill material from a region of tubing is a desired function, and under machine control, both pairs of plates move transversely to void fill from the tubing. The movable pair of plates, in the transversely closed position, then move longitudinally, to create a "tail" (a region of tubing substantially void of fill).
The clipper apparatus is activated to place clips between the pairs of plates. The tail is severed between the clips, to form the end of one product, and the beginning of the next.
In the past, products such as hams and turkeys, cooked, i loaf form, have been formed in the manner described, in a meat filled tubing which is thereafter molded. A concern of manufacture has been that the molds typically have length dimensions which are different in length than the pre-molded, filled tubing form of the product. In such a situation, the filled tubing form of the product must have a "tail" (a tubing portion which is unfilled) longer than required with a product which will not be molded. In typical machinery, tail length is not adjustable.